What to eat at the fair

ADRIAN — I am what you might call a food lover. Not really a foodie (not trendy enough for that) but growing up in Dallas gave me a deep and abiding love for all things food. Specifically, fair food.

In Texas, the state fair isn’t just an event, it’s just one step down from holy. Kids get a day off from school to go and no trip to the fair is complete without sampling all the delicious, fried food all the different vendors have to offer.

I haven’t spent much time at a fair of any kind in years, so I was pretty excited to dig in to that deep fried nostalgia when the Lenawee County Fair came to town on Sunday. I conned my husband, Dan, and my mother-in-law, Jan, into joining me on an all-out assault on everything the fair has to offer.

It did not disappoint.

The first place we stopped is one of my long-time festival favorites: fresh lemonade. These are available throughout the fair and each stand has its own tried-and-true method. While all of them were delicious, our favorite was one made with lemon juice (instead of powder,) sugar and water that was thoroughly blended (instead of shaken.) Since lemonade is such a great way to keep cool at the fair, we got a few refills and the reusable plastic cup definitely was worth the extra up-front cash. Some stands will honor the refill price for cups from other stands and some won’t, but having a durable cup and not needing to throw away multiple cups made it a good value.

Next, we sampled the burgers from Steak Shack and, not to spoil anything, these were one of the highlights of our day. We ate them plain, just meat and cheese on a bun, and they were spectacular. Juicy and flavorful, they are way beyond what you normally expect out of fair food and, at just $3 a piece, one of the best deals you’ll find all day. They're not huge, so if you’re really hungry, you may want to order more than one.

We decided to go full-on American classic and enjoy a shake with our burgers. Dan waited in a long line at Frosty Cow in the rain to get us the milkshake, along with a chocolate milk and a swirl cone. We thought when the rain started the line would break up but it didn’t and it didn’t take us long to figure out why. We tried the strawberry shake and — wow! — was it good. Probably the best shake any of us had ever had and, at just $2, worth waiting in the rain for. It was a perfect counterpart to the cheeseburgers and, since the stands are right by each other, made for a great lunch or dinner pairing. The ice cream cone and the chocolate milk were both delicious but the milkshake is what stole the show at Frosty Cow.

Maria’s Sunnyside was our next stop. I am very picky about my Mexican food. I even make my own tortillas at home because, often, store bought doesn’t cut it. Maria’s definitely didn’t disappoint! We tried the beef tacos with flour tortillas ($6 for two) and the beef was nicely seasoned, not a lot of spice (you can add salsa for that) so it will work well for just about anybody. But the tortillas really stood out and the tacos were another standout of the day for us.

No trip to the fair would be complete without a stop in the Grange building (or so I’ve been told.) Filled with homestyle goodies, we decided to limit our sampling to the mac n’ cheese and potato salad. The mac n’ cheese was pretty solid, definitely better than the stuff in the blue box at the grocery store, but summer is not this comfort food’s time to shine and it felt a little heavy for the hot weather. The potato salad, on the other hand, was very good and was only $1, a perfect side dish to just about any other fair fare there is.

Our last stop of the day was at Randy’s BBQ. Being a Texas girl, barbecue is my happy place and finding some to measure up to my home town is hard. Brisket (my personal favorite) wasn’t an option when we stopped by so we got a pulled pork sandwich. The pork was tender and juicy and the sauce had an excellent balance of sweet and smoky, all of it absorbed on the basic bun. All those factors combine for a darn near perfect barbecue sandwich. At $7, it was one of the more expensive buys of the day, but given the ample portion and the rich flavor, it was worth the investment.

We also stopped to take in a few fair food classics. My personal favorite, the corn dog, was one of the highlights of the day and the stand we stopped at offered a corn dog and a soda for $5. One of Jan’s favorite treats, the funnel cake (cooked extra crispy and covered in powdered sugar) made the trip down from Ann Arbor worth the drive.

While just about any kind of fair food is good food, there were definitely a few standouts at the Lenawee County Fair. If you don’t want to eat the entire fair (like we did,) a few spots will give you the full fair experience. If you’re limiting yourself, our picks were a burger from Steak Shack, a shake from Frosty Cow and potato salad from the Grange building (which would cost a total of just $6.) But regardless what you choose, the fair is filled with great food with something to satisfy every craving, fried or otherwise.